This much-anticipated 3DS installment is a sequel to the revered Super Nintendo classic A Link to the Past, but each new glimpse indicates ALBW is much different than most fans expected. Many folks have spotted a reference to Majora’s Mask, and even Aonuma has hinted at a potential connection. But a timeline released during Zelda’s 25th anniversary split the events of ALttP and Majora’s Mask into separate timelines. Jumping around through time isn’t a new trick for Zelda or Nintendo. But as more stories get added to the lore, fans begin to wonder where new entries fit? We asked Aonuma and, before answering, he briefly laughed as if he’d expected the question.

“As you probably know, after A Link to the Past, Link goes off on a trip. The Link in this game is a different one. So I think we can assume that it’s quite a bit farther in the future, ” Aonuma said through an interpreter. But according to the timeline, A Link to the Past is followed by the Oracle of Seasons/Ages games, Link’s Awakening, and the original Zelda games on the NES. Would there be any specifics callouts take place during the adventure? “I’ll leave that to your imagination. Although, for example, Link’s Awakening is not a game that takes place in Hyrule itself, so it’s not like it directly connects to that one. Maybe that’s the right track to get you there?”

Where do the events of Zelda 3DS fall on the timeline?

We also asked if he had any other details to share about the villain named Yuga. We couldn't help but notice a visual connection to the Gerudo, a race of humans introduced in Zelda: Ocarina of Time that consisted solely of females, with one male born every hundred years. “I don’t think he’s a Gerudo, “ Aonuma clarified. “I think perhaps the designers were a bit influenced by the art from past games. One of things we did with him, actually, was to make him a little bit ambiguous gender-wise, whether he’s a man or a woman. Having the longer hair and all. He also actually sings in the game.”

With so many story details revealed, it was easy to forget the Dark Triforce, so we asked Aonuma if he had any new details to share about it. “When you look at the logo, what that two-Triforce symbol is really trying to show the difference between Lorule and Hyrule. But I don’t think that necessarily corresponds to the way the Triforce operates in Lorule. How the Triforce in Lorule works connects to what happened to Lorule. I think you’ll see that in the game, ” Aonuma said.

Outside of its place in the lore, the structure of A Link Between Worlds is very different from the games Aonuma previously made. From his first game as a director -- Marvelous: Another Treasure Island, which Nintendo released to Japan-only in 1996 -- to his work on subsequent Zelda games, each one presented a world that would unfold as items were discovered. But with ALBW players have most of the keys to the kingdom right from the start, and they can explore the world in any order. How is Aonuma handling this transition? What’s it been like for him to change up his thinking?

“What I wanted to do was make a game where you could get stuck and get lost and you’d have to think about things, but you’d have fun doing that. Obviously, If you just get stuck and stay stuck, that’s not fun. If you get lost and stay lost, that’s not fun. But if there’s a way out that you’re able to get to, that’s where I think the fun of a Zelda game lies, “ Aonuma explained. “In previous Zelda games, we've created the scenarios and linked them together in a line. But ultimately that becomes super linear. I think that’s not really that much fun. What I wanted to do with this new game, A Link Between Worlds, is to be able to give players lots of choices and let them be able to think about things for themselves.”

“You might come across one obstacle and have some idea, so you go and get an item and try to use that item to solve that problem. You might not be able to do it. You might fail the first time or the first couple of times and have to go back to get another item and do it again. But if you’re finally able to overcome something, that’s what makes it a fun game, “ Aonuma continued. “As far as trying to bring that about and meet that challenge, which is what I wanted to accomplish with this game, the rental system is a big part of that. There are also lots of other things you’ll find in the game that are part of the process of bringing that type of gameplay about.”

His response leads to the inevitable questions: Can such an open format still maintain a type of progression? Will some dungeons still be harder than others? Aonuma told us that the adventure is split into two clumps: early dungeons and later dungeons. The earlier dungeons are easier since they’re the first dungeons in the game. Potentially, these dungeons would show players the ropes and teach them how to get through the game. “But in the late dungeons, things do get more difficult. Within each dungeon, you’ll have a lot of obstacles to overcome using different actions, “ Aonuma said.

“As far as the items themselves, even though you have the items from the beginning, some of them are more difficult to use. Some of them will take more practice. I think that’s where you’ll find the differences in difficulty showing up. You might find a dungeon that requires you to use an item that you maybe haven’t used a lot yet, so you have to train yourself in order to overcome something.” Aonuma also confirmed if a player dies with a rental item from the shop, they lose that item.

Reflection appeared to be a major theme for ALBW, but we were curious why Aonuma and his team settled on the bracelet as the means to transition between Hyrule and Lorule over the Magic Mirror -- a useful item from ALttP that took Link into the Dark World. “It just doesn’t really make sense to use a mirror, “ Aonuma said. “You see yourself reflected in the mirror, but then how does that translate to you becoming a picture on the wall? It just didn’t make a lot of sense.”

“The magic mirror, after all, was really just an item for going to that other world, “ Aonuma continued. “Here, with the ability to turn into a picture and the item that grants you that ability, that’s an ability you get, and just one of its uses is being able to go to the other world. Using the magic mirror as that item would have been kind of strange.”

So did the team arrive at the ability to become a painting on the wall before the theme of a reflection? “Yeah, that was very much an early-on idea. I don’t remember exactly where the idea came from, but I started to have these discussions with my staff, “ Aonuma said. “You had Phantom Ganon in Ocarina of Time. He was able to go into a wall and move around. I thought that would be a cool thing to do. You could use it to slip through cracks in the walls and sneak around people and do all sorts of things.”

“That was the start of it. But then it became a question of, ‘How do we put that in a game?’ We could make that a regular item that you equip and use, but then it’s more like something you have to equip for that specific purpose and it becomes something that’s harder to use. We wanted it to be something that Link would use all the time. He’d be able to use it throughout the game. So we made it an A button action, ” Aonuma explained.

“Once you have that ability, you’re able to do it at any time. Everything else came later, really. For being able to go into a wall, we felt like the side view was most appropriate for that. Then we thought that if we combined that with the top view and we move between those two things, we’d have an interesting tonal shift there, a contrast. That would give us different ways of looking at the world that would be more interesting. Once we had that, we could use the world of Link to the Past to create the rest of the game. We could use that as a kind of base.”

Jose Otero is an Associate Editor for IGN and host of the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast. You can read more about his opinions on Zelda by following him on twitter.

The first Legend of Zelda game made exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS is set in the world of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and makes use of the system's 3D abilities to allow Link to become a drawing and move along walls.